Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #50 for the week July 21st - July 27th, 2007. In this issue we cover Canonical seeking help with training courses, last call for Software Freedom Day registrations, a call to arms for US LoCo teams, new Drag & Drop Gnome tabs, new Launchpad features, and much much more.

UWN Translations

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• Español - Start one! https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue50/Es

• Français - http://ubuntu-fr.org/lettre/lhu50.html

• Italiano - http://wiki.ubuntu-it.org/NewsletterItaliana

• Português - Start one! https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue50/Pt

In This Issue

• Canonical seeks community help on training courses
• Last call for Software Freedom Day registrations

• US LoCo Teams Need Your Help - A Call To Arms!

• Drag & Drop Gnome Application Tabs

• Launchpad 1.1.7 and Personal Package Archives
• In The Press and In the Blogosphere
• Translation stats
• Bug Stats

General Community News

Canonical seeks community help on training courses

This coming fall Canonical is working to launch some training courses and wants community help to make it rock! The Desktop Training material will be freely available on the Ubuntu wiki although initially developed by Canonical. A preliminary table of contents for this instructor led course is already available and it and more information can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Training/DesktopCourseFeedback.

Last call for Software Freedom Day registrations

Software Freedom Day on September 15 is fast approaching and Melissa Draper reminds everybody that the deadline for individuals and teams to receive free materials, July 31st, is fast approaching. The free pack includes cds of Ubuntu and TheOpenCD, tshirts, balloons and more. For those teams wishing to get going, see the guide at http://softwarefreedomday.org/StartGuide.

LoCo News

US LoCo Teams Need Your Help - A Call To Arms!

The goal of the US LoCo Teams is to have a team in every state by 2008, and they need your help to accomplish this. They need users of all abilities to help form, run, and participate in the US Team Project. Everyone is qualified and welcome. They've come a long way, but it is up to the Ubuntu Community to help bring this project in on time. If you live in the US and are an Ubuntu user, please take the time to find out the status of your state's team by visiting the link below. If you have other questions, please join us in the IRC Channel #ubuntu-us, the server is irc.freenode.net. Everyone wants Ubuntu to be the Operating System of choice, and here is your chance to help bring that about. Join all those already participating and having a great time doing it! w00t (we own the other team), lets make it happen. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/USTeams/TeamList

New in Gutsy Gibbon

Drag & Drop Gnome Application Tabs - Xchat Logs in Dialogs

Drag and Drop Gnome application tabs now a feature in Gutsy Gibbon. Have you ever wanted to rearrange the order of the applications open in your window list? Now you can! It works much the same as moving your tab order in Firefox. The second new feature has to do with Xchat, the IRC chat client. When you open a dialog that has been opened previously, you get a small summary of the previous exchange. No more using grep to access your logs to find out where you were in the conversation. http://www.geekosophical.net/?p=140

Launchpad News

Last week saw the release of Launchpad 1.1.7 with a raft of new features, including some of particular interest to the Ubuntu community:

• Frequently Asked Questions in the Answer Tracker: answer contacts can now mark frequently asked questions and create a canonical answer that is available to anyone using the Answer Tracker. (See the quick-start guide: https://help.launchpad.net/FrequentlyAskedQuestions)

• Teams can now set their default language: teams can become an answer contact for a specific language.
• Larger font size: visit launchpad.net and you’ll see that we’ve increased the size of the text used on the site, making it easier to read Launchpad’s default text size.

With the release 1.1.7, a major new feature entered beta testing. Personal Package Archives (PPA) allow you to build and publish binary packages for multiple architectures simply by uploading a source package to Launchpad. Each PPA beta tester gets:

• An APT repository of up to 1 gigabyte for material licensed with an OSI-approved licence.
• Binaries built for x86 and AMD64 architectures.

To join the PPA beta, see the PPA quick-start guide: https://help.launchpad.net/PPAQuickStart

As ever, the Launchpad team would love to hear from you. Join them and other Launchpad users on the launchpad-users mailing list:

https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/launchpad-users

In The Press

• "Canonical launches Web-based systems management for Ubuntu" - Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu Linux distribution, announced on July 22 at the Ubuntu Live conference in Portland, Ore., the availability of Landscape, its Web-based systems management program for Ubuntu servers and desktops. http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS9110241259.html

• Mini VAR Case Study: Ubuntu Linux in K-12 School - Ubuntu and Open Source have been rolled out in a Portland Hight School. Sixty students and five instructors have laptops featuring Ubuntu. OpenSourcery chose to use System76 as it's hardware platform. Requirements were: a comprehensive office suite, web access and browsing, Google Earth support and, video/sound editing abilities. The students loved using this system, but some of the teachers had issues. Bottom line was that it saved untold amounts of money and only generated 15 trouble tickets in the nine months of use. http://techiqmag.com/2007/07/22/var-case-study-ubuntu-linux-in-k-12-school/

• Ubuntu Launches Update Service for Support Subscribers - Available to Canonical's support subscribers, Landscape provides a key tool for the growing number of businesses that want to take advantage of the ease of use of Ubuntu and have previously seen system administration or support as a hurdle. Landscape was developed to help manage, monitor and maintain enterprise systems while at the same time reducing the cost of overhead. Key features include: package management, system updates, system inventory, system history, and performance reporting to name but a few. http://www.linuxelectrons.com/news/linux/10841/ubuntu-launches-update-service-support-subscribers

• Canonical Creates Personal Package Archive Service for Ubuntu - Canonical has announced the beta release of the Launchpad Personal Package Archive service (PPA), a new way for developers to build and publish packages of their code, documentation, artwork, themes and other contributions to free software. PPA will allow groups to collaborate on sets of packages, or individual developers to publish their own versions of popular free software. Each user will get up to one gigabyte of PPA space. This space will work as a standard Ubuntu software package repository. Please visit the link to find out more about the PPA service from this indepth article. http://www.linuxelectrons.com/news/application/10842/canonical-creates-personal-package-archive-service-ubuntu

• Singapore Charity Uses Edubuntu desktops for Computer Lab - The Singapore Linux Meetup Group has joined with Club Rainbow to set up a computer learning lab for the terminally ill children of Singapore. SLMG members collected donated hardware and then refurbished the computers themselves. Edubuntu was chosen as the operating system for the computers. The lab is comprised of a HP server which is the network gateway, and 10 desktops with multimedia installed for the children to explore with. Training for the staff and a fun filled intro to Edubuntu and Linux for the children will also be included. https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-marketing-submissions/2007-July/000046.html

• Ubuntu Targets IT in Coming Year - In the coming months, Canonical LTD plans to focus on its server software for many of its system improvements. Landscape will help IT administrators evaluate and manage the condition of their servers. Improving Ubuntu's performance while running on VMware will also be a focus. Administrators will then be able to run many instances of Ubuntu in a virtual environment on a single server. As always, luring IT professionals with regular and predictable enterprise releases, is a must. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9027630&intsrc=news_ts_head

• Blindness To Perceptions Of Average User Is Real Linux Handicap - After several posts in which he bashes Linux, Alexander Wolfe of Information Week, is at it again. He thinks that Linux supporters are more interested in preaching to the converted that in doing the hard work required to make the open source operating system attractive to Windows users. It's not about which OS is best, it's about what the average consumer is comfortable with. And the historic hostility of the Linux community is another drawback even though the Ubuntu community is doing a good job of keeping this behavior at bay. Because of these points, he believes Linux will remain mired in its single digit desktop market share. Read the whole article including point and counterpoint by clicking on the link. http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2007/07/blindness_to_pe.html

• Ubuntu Preparing Managed Services, Small Business Server for VARs - Ubuntu's parent company, Canonical, is preparing a managed service platform that will allow VARs and solution providers to remotely manage Ubuntu based small business servers. This service will be a standard way for solution providers and system integrators to easily manage and support servers either locally or remotely. The exact time frame for the release of this service platform is unknown, but should be sometime within the next year. http://techiqmag.com/2007/07/22/ubuntu-preparing-managed-services-small-business-server-for-vars/

• Build a $250 PC That Doesn't Suck - Building a low cost basic computer that will run todays complex operating systems and software has become so hard to do that most are obsolete before they get built. But by picking easy to use off the shelf components, assembling it yourself, and using the right operating system, everyone should be able to have a system for $250 or less. This system would be capable of handling the demands of the average user for a reasonable period of time. All the hardware components were from Newegg.com. The operating system picked was Ubuntu because it offered everything needed for the average computer user at no cost. Get more information by clicking on the link. http://computershopper.com/feature/build-a-250-pc-that-doesnt-suck-200707

• How Canonical Stays on the Light Side:A Recipe for Staying True to One's Values - The key according to Ubuntu's founder, Mark Shuttleworth, is to keep to the core values of the company. Having a backup plan doesn't hurt either. Enablement of the customer, Ubuntu users and developers seems to be the drive behind the release of the Personal Package Archives. Designed as a tool set that allows developers, whether they work at Ubuntu or not, to build and publish packages of code, documentation, artwork themes and other contributions to free software. The hope is that it will better enable developers of all stripes to easily roll out their own packages and then quickly distribute them to the Linux community. http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/interviews/6405/1/

• Ubuntu Studio supports serious audio, adds little for video and graphics - Ubuntu Studio is aimed at the GNU/Linux audio, video and graphic enthusiast as well as the professional. Exploring this new version of Ubuntu, you will find dozens of audio editing, mixing and synthesizing programs, but that is about it. Video and graphic enthusiasts, targeted by this project, get literally nothing new. It is hoped that future releases of this version of Ubuntu will mature and grow with contributions form the community. http://www.linux.com/feature/118141

• Ubuntu Live needs a more commercial focus - Robin 'Roblimo' Miller writes that while the Ubuntu Live Conference in Portland was a decent first effort, it was no where near as polished as Red Hat's annual meetings. As a result, it left him with a somewhat scattered feeling. He believes that in order for Ubuntu to survive, it is going to have to concentrate more on commercial and income building relationships, similar to what Red Hat has done. You can also watch a Flash Video of Canonical's Marketing Manager Gerry Carr giving his take on the 1st Ubuntu Live Conference. http://www.linux.com/feature/118199

• Ubuntu 7.04 - Windows isn't going away anytime soon, but Ubuntu 7.04 is a refreshing Linux-based alternative to Vista. With Vista off to a slow start, and the facts that it is slow, annoying, and downright confusing. Ubuntu may be the alternative you're looking for. Is Ubuntu the right step for you? Mike Spitalieri of Laptop Magazine, answers this question and many more in his informative look at the Ubuntu Operating System. http://www.laptopmag.com/Review/Ubuntu-7-04.htm

• The Next Great Battle - For years, Linux has been either a server platform, or the desktop of the ultra geek. The message from Portland is that Linux as a consumer product IS the next great battle. The perception of Linux being too difficult may change now that vendors are concentrating their efforts on making their products more user friendly. Ubuntu has lead the way in this area and is winning fans with it's easier Linux approach which includes the ability to boot the live CD without having to install anything. Ubuntu is also developing a new application that will be aimed at Windows users. It will allow them to launch a Ubuntu desktop over top of their Windows desktop. http://www.wired.com/software/coolapps/news/2007/07/linux_desktop

• It's all about community at Ubuntu Live - If you weren't at the Ubuntu Live Conference in Portland, Oregon, then this article is a must read. Joe Brockmeier of linux.com covers the hotter Keynotes, How to run Ubuntu on laptops, Tutorials, and the Ubuntu Community. One of the more interesting items in this article however is the one on the future of processors. James Reinder of Intel talks about multi core processors and why they are becoming more and more necessary in todays computing world. The three determining factors are: power, the memory wall, and the Instruction Level Parallelism or ILP wall. While todays processors are dual or quad core chips containing identical cores, the future will have CPU's with multiple cores where some of the cores are smaller and could be used for different functions. http://www.linux.com/feature/118226

• What Do We Really Want From Linux? - Serdar Yegulalp of Information Week says his position on Linux is much different than his fellow journalist Alexander Wolfe. He feels that the large number of distributions of Linux is not a bad thing, but can make it hard to pick which one is right for you. Having a version of Linux that the everyday user can feel comfortable with needs to be a goal, but remaking Linux distributions as a whole is not the way to go about it. http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2007/07/what_do_we_real.html

• Ten commandments for Ubuntu - As a keynote speaker at Ubuntu Live, Matt Asay spoke about changing the way we present the Ubuntu Operating System. Instead of getting into debates about the basic differences in operating systems, we need to talk more about the operating experience. Change was the basic concept, and you can see his ideas in the screen shots and slide show in the link below. http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9750516-7.html?tag=more

• Dell to expand Linux PC offerings - Mark Shuttleworth, who created a version of Linux software named Ubuntu, said Dell is happy with the demand it has seen for Linux PCs that were introduced in May. - http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/070726/dell_linux.html?.v=1

• Why (almost) Everyone Should Try Ubuntu - Rober Strohmeyer, at Maximum PC, provides two categories of reasons for choosing Ubuntu: immediate practicality and long-term viability. Ubuntu installs quickly, recognizes most hardware, hides root so users do not hurt themselves, and is now available pre-configured from vendors. With an established set of developers, growing number of supporting vendors, and a massive base of users, Ubuntu will be here for a long time. Read more at http://www.maximumpc.com/article/why_almost_everyone_should_try_ubuntu

In The Blogosphere

• Shuttleworth says: Ubuntu Is Enterprise Friendly - Mark Shuttleworth's keynote at the Ubuntu Live Conference centered on the fact that the Ubuntu server is capable of bringing the same values of its desktop version to the server market -- ease of use, performance and compatibility. With Linux already driving the enterprise market through thin clients and dedicated systems, Ubuntu needs to maintain its ability to preform well as a virtual machine. Canonical will therefore be putting more resources behind Landscape, a web-based systems management client for small to medium businesses. In his conclusion, Shuttleworth called for the Linux community to hold discussions on setting a predictable release schedule for major distributions to ease collaboration among kernel developers and afford better stability and support for software developers working on the platform. http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/07/shuttleworth-ub.html

• Ubuntu Must Play To Its Strengths To Beat Microsoft - Stephen O'grady said in his keynote address at the Ubuntu Live Conference that he wants to help solve Ubuntu's biggest problem: Microsoft. Playing to Ubuntu's strengths is what will help free software to succeed on the desktop. Two of Ubuntu's key strengths are apt-get for ease of package maintenance, and Ubuntu's strong community environment. Things MS has ignored to date. http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/07/ubuntu-must-pla.html

• Linus Torvalds announces Linux 2.6.23-rc1 - On time and two weeks after 2.6.22 and with a ton of revisions. It includes updates for most all of the architectures, drivers, file system's, VM, networking, and ACPI. It also includes the merge of the cfs scheduler, and the UIO driver infrastructure. Find out more by clicking the link below. http://lkmltimes.brucalipto.org/announce/linux-2623-rc1/

• What's New on Ubuntu 7.10 - At the Ubuntu Live Conference in Portland, Matt Zimmerman of Canonical gave the attendees a look at what is coming in Ubuntu's 7.10 Gusty Gibbon. Desktop features include 3D desktop right out of the box and multiple monitor configuration. If you are a laptop user, power profiling features are planned. On the server side of Gutsy, turn-key Web-based administration via the new Landscape management tool and a proactive security tool-set named App-Armor. http://blog.linuxtoday.com/blog/archives/070723-170755.html

• New Linux computer has 1,024 Dual-Core Processors and 4000 GB of RAM - NASA's new SGI Altix system is expected to be installed in August at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility at the Ames Research Center. The new system will be the first supercomputer to operate 2,048 processor cores and 4TB of memory under a single copy of Linux(R) -- creating the largest Linux single system image (SSI) in the world. - http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/AQM07923072007-1.htm

• A Linux Experience - Having a couple of hours to kill one day, Lionel decided to download a copy of Ubuntu's Live CD. When everything worked from the boot, he was intrigued and decided to try the dual boot option. Needing to run some priority software for his writing, he did some research and found that Virtual-Box could run everything he would need. After 45 days of testing, he found that didn't need to ever boot in to the Windows partition. Now his computer is an Ubuntu only machine and he is a full time Ubuntu user.http://www.5thwind.com/?p=12

• Grandpa Gets a Dell with Ubuntu Linux Preinstalled - Follow along as Tyche(Grandpa) orders, receives and sets up his new Dell Inspiron 530N Desktop Computer preinstallled with Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn. Tyche has been using Ubuntu for a while, and is quite capable of handling anything he needs to do on the system, so this is more of a rating on how a Dell system works out of the box with Ubuntu preinstalled. The verdict: "I'm very happy with my computer. I feel the price was reasonable, and the service was good". http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070725085521830

Meetings and Events

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Georgia US LoCo meeting

• Start: 19:00
• End: 20:00
• Location: #ubuntu-georgia

• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/GeorgiaUSTeam/Meetings

Catalan LoCo meeting

• Start: 20:00
• End: 21:00
• Location: #ubuntu-cat

• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CatalanTeam/Reunions

Tuesday July 31, 2007

Ubuntu Server Team Meeting

• Start: 15:00 UTC
• End: 16:00 UTC
• Location: IRC Channel #ubuntu-meeting

• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ServerTeam/Meeting

Technical Board Meeting

• Start: 19:00 UTC
• End: 21:00 UTC
• Location: IRC Channel #ubuntu-meeting

• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TechnicalBoardAgenda

Updates and security for 6.06, 6.10, and 7.04

Security Updates

• USN-491-1: Bind vulnerability - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-security-announce/2007-July/000565.html

Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Updates

• bind9 1:9.3.2-2ubuntu1.3 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/dapper-changes/2007-July/012460.html

• langpack-locales 2.3.18.4 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/dapper-changes/2007-July/012461.html

Ubuntu 6.10 Updates

• bind9 1:9.3.2-2ubuntu3.2 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2007-July/008370.html

• tzdata 2007f-0ubuntu0.6.10 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edgy-changes/2007-July/008371.html

Ubuntu 7.04 Updates

• flashplugin-nonfree 9.0.48.0.0ubuntu1~7.04.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-July/008667.html

• kernel-package 10.065ubuntu6 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-July/008668.html

• bind9 1:9.3.4-2ubuntu2.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-July/008669.html

• dbus 1.0.2-1ubuntu4 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-July/008670.html

• tzdata 2007f-0ubuntu0.7.4 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-July/008671.html

• vino 2.18.1-0ubuntu1.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-July/008672.html

• gnome-media 2.18.0-0ubuntu1.1 - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/feisty-changes/2007-July/008673.html

Bug Stats

• Open (30965) +361 # over last week
• Critical (20) -3 # over last week
• Unconfirmed (15517) +335 # over last week
• Unassigned (23197) +298 # over last week
• All bugs ever reported (111507) +1077 # over last week

As always, the Bug Squad needs more help. If you want to get started, please see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BugSquad

Translation Stats

1. Spanish (23957) -1961 # over last week
2. French (38762) -5 # over last week
3. Swedish (54406) -86 # over last week
4. English-UK (60165) -45 # over last week
5. German (63046) -61 # over last week

Remaining string to translate in Ubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon", see more at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/gutsy/

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Additional Ubuntu News

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Conclusion

Thank you for reading the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter.

See you next week!

Credits

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

• Martin Albisetti
• Dawid van Wyngaard
• John Crawford
• Nick Ali
• Corey Burger
• And many others

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Feedback

If you would like to submit an idea or story you think is worth appearing on the UWN, please send them to ubuntu-marketing-submissions@lists.ubuntu.com. This document is maintained by the Ubuntu Marketing Team. Please feel free to contact us regarding any concerns or suggestions by either sending an email to ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com or by using any of the other methods on the Ubuntu Marketing Team Contact Information Page (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MarketingTeam). If you'd like to contribute to a future issue of the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, please feel free to edit the appropriate wiki page. If you have any technical support questions, please send then ubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com.